DPhil Student
yuhan.li@biology.ox.ac.uk

Yuhan Li

Background

I love animals. Growing up, I was surrounded by them—some were playful puppy companions, others wild visitors. In kindergarten, I announced I wanted to be a zookeeper! This dream partially came true in high school when I volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary, caring for camels, deer, snakes, and wolves. It was then I realized my bigger dream: to become a wildlife conservationist.

I love people too. This passion led me to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics during my undergraduate years, exploring the complexities of the human world. As an extrovert, I love connecting with people from different cultures. Growing up in China, I was lucky to experience exchange programs in the U.S., France, Australia, and Japan, living with wonderful host families and gaining firsthand insights into cultural differences and shared values.

A major turning point came after graduation when I worked with Shanshui Conservation Center on the Tibetan Plateau, including in China’s first national park. I collaborated with local communities to conserve snow leopards and develop sustainable income programs. The snow leopards seemed to like me—I once encountered seven wild individuals in a single day, a moment I believe to be a world record!

Completing the MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management with ICCS was another milestone, where I grew as an interdisciplinary researcher. Now, I’m thrilled to return to ICCS for a DPhil. Conserving Earth’s biodiversity and fostering human-nature coexistence has always been my wildest dream, and I hope this DPhil will give me the tools to make it a reality.

Prior to my time at Oxford, I worked extensively in China, addressing topics such as biodiversity monitoring, human-wildlife conflict, ecotourism, citizen science, and urban ecosystem recovery. I am particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches that integrate nature and humans to achieve sustainable conservation outcomes.

Research interests

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I am interested in applied conservation science and aim for my research to directly inform conservation practice and policy-making. I have a broad interest in:

  1. Impact evaluation using both qualitative and quantitative methods
  2. Community-based conservation
  3. Large carnivore conservation, with a particular focus on snow leopards
  4. Understanding public perceptions through news media, social media and questionnaires

Current research

I aim to explore pathways toward improving people-nature relationships, focusing on the implications of China’s national parks in achieving the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. My research centers on China, which is working toward establishing the world’s largest national park system by 2035. I will conduct extensive fieldwork in China’s first national park—the Three-River-Source on the Tibetan Plateau—where I previously worked on conservation initiatives.

 

My research has two key components:

  1. Policy analysis

China’s national parks were established during the era of the Global Biodiversity Framework, emphasizing human-nature coexistence and serving as the country’s most significant protected areas. These parks encompass vast, biodiverse ecosystems that are home to local communities, with the dual goal of conserving biodiversity and supporting community development. However, it remains unclear to what extent the Framework’s global targets have been integrated into China’s national park policies. My research will analyse policy discourse at the national level and across five established national parks, identifying alignments and gaps with global conservation targets.

 

  1. Impact evaluation

The creation of the Three-River-Source National Park introduced new incentives for local communities, such as employing 17,211 local people as rangers and piloting snow leopard ecotourism projects. However, the impacts of these initiatives on local culture, livelihoods and conservation motivations remain underexplored. I will use participatory methods to understand the theory of change underpins these interventions and empirically evaluate the social and ecological outcomes. Additionally, I will conduct predictive studies to explore interactions between external and internal drivers of conservation, ensuring that limited resources deliver tangible benefits for both people and nature.

Brief CV

2013-2017, Bachelor of Law in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Peking University

2017-2018, Manager of Angsai station, Shanshui Conservation Center

2018-2021, MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, University of Oxford

2021-2024, Senior Program Officer, founder of Shanghai and Hainan office, Shanshui Conservation Center

2024-current, DPhil in Biology, Univeristy of Oxford

Publications

Zhao, Q., Wang, Y., Wu, L., Feng, Y., Li, Y., Zhang, Z., Zhao, Q., & Wang, F. (2024). A path to human–raccoon dog harmony: Identifying factors influencing the tolerance of urban residents in Shanghai towards a neglected species. People and Nature, 6(3), 1277–1287. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10636

Li, Y., Arias, M., Hinsley, A., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2022). International media coverage of the Bolivian jaguar trade. People and Nature, 4(1), 115–126. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10261

Booth, H., Arias, M., Brittain, S., Challender, D. W. S., Khanyari, M., Kuiper, T., Li, Y., Olmedo, A., Oyanedel, R., Pienkowski, T., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2021). Saving lives, protecting livelihoods, and safeguarding nature: Risk-based wildlife trade policy for sustainable development outcomes post-COVID-19. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, Article 639216. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.639216

Booth, H., Clark, M., Milner-Gulland, E. J., & Williams, D. R. (2021). Investigating the risks of removing wild meat from global food systems. Current Biology, 31(4), 802–808.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.079

Koh, L. P., Li, Y., & Lee, J. S. H. (2021). The value of China’s ban on wildlife trade and consumption. Nature Sustainability, 4(1), 2–4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00677-0

Li, J., Weckworth, B. V., McCarthy, T. M., Liang, X., Liu, Y., Xing, R., Li, D., Zhang, Y., Xue, Y., Jackson, R., Xiao, L., Cheng, C., Li, S., Xu, F., Ma, M., Yang, X., Diao, K., Gao, Y., Song, D., Nowell, K., He, B., Li, Y., McCarthy, K., Paltsyn, M. Y., Sharma, K., Mishra, C., Schaller, G. B., Lu, Z., & Beissinger, S. R. (2020). Defining priorities for global snow leopard conservation landscapes. Biological Conservation, 241, 108387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108387